In this episode, I Only Take Photos With My Phone - What Photography Stuff Am I Missing Out On? And also some more thoughts on the last episode, Do I Really Need A Camera In 2022? Or Will My Phone Do Instead?
Hi and welcome to Episode 142 of the Photography Explained podcast. I’m your host Rick, and in each episode I will try to explain one photographic thing to you in plain English, without the irrelevant details, in less than 27 minutes (ish). What I tell you is based on my lifetime of photographic experience. And not Google.
First - here is the answery bit
If you only take photos with a phone you are missing out on many photographic things, such as
- A thing ergonomically designed to take photos – yes a camera
- Camera lenses
- The taking photos with a camera experience
- A much larger camera sensor
- Gear to help you take better photos
- And a whole world of photography stuff
- OK - and some complicated photography stuff too
I know that phones are great and can take amazing photos, but let me tell you what you might be missing out on if you only use your phone to take photos.
That was my answer - here is the talky bit
And I say “might be missing out on” for a reason. As I explained in a previous episode, more and more people get into photography with their phones. And many of those people never progress from taking photos with a phone.
And that is fine - I just want to tell you what you might be missing out on if this is you.
A thing ergonomically designed to take photos – yes a camera
I love taking photos with my camera. And I hate taking photos with my phone. I might have mentioned this before. But it is true.
See a camera is a piece of kit that has been pretty much designed to do one thing and one thing only – take photos.
And there is something about taking photos with a camera which is special. My Canon 6D sits in my hands so nicely and naturally, and is a pleasure to use.
Don’t get me started on my phone, the slippery eel thing that I have – I have mentioned this before I know…..
Taking photos with a phone is just not the same as taking photos with a camera.
Camera lenses
Camera lenses are gamechangers – they give you so much that you just do not get with a phone. And a phone has a wide angle lens as the default so everything is further away. And I am not sure why.
My iPhone XS has an equivalent focal length of 26mm. Equivalent when compared to a full frame camera like my Canon 6D that is.
What does this mean?
Well a standard lens is 50mm, which roughly equates to the field of view we humans see the world with. That is why it is called a standard lens.
So 26mm is wide angle. And pretty wide I have to say. You have a wider field of view and everything is further away.
And this does make a difference.
Yes there is a 2x lens, which gives 52mm, which is standard, but this feels like telephoto on a phone – it is pretty weird when I think about it.
What focal lengths to I use?
17mm for my photos of buildings. Very wide. I can’t take the photos that I need to take with my phone, I need a very wide angle lens on a full frame camera.
A phone camera lens is shoehorned into that small, rounded, shiny thing. And I have to say this – the photos that you can get with a phone are pretty remarkable.
But the quality of camera lenses is better - well they are larger and are specifically designed to do one thing, so you would hope so.
A much larger sensor
The sensor on a phone is tiny. Well a phone is pretty small, and there is so much packed in there – it would be. And the larger the sensor the higher the quality of photos that you can take. Now I know that this is a massive generalisation, and that there is clever software that helps with this, but a larger sensor allows you to capture more data that you can do stuff with.
Medium format cameras have bigger sensors than full frame cameras – there is still a demand for these, still a need for these cameras that capture massive amounts of data and give massive amounts of detail and tones in images. I am talking amounts of detail that you can nearly get lost in.
Gear to help you take better photos
There is a whole world of gear that us photographers use. Now I don’t use a lot of gear. I only buy gear if it will help me to take better photos, or help me to take photos that I cannot get without that gear. I have some very specific gear for my work, and my phone never sees that gear.
I can’t imagine taking a photo on my phone with a 10 stop ND filter for example.
Of course some gear can be used with phones, such as my tripod, magic arm, grey card, that kind of thing. But I never do. OK I put my camera on a mini tripod when I am shooting videos of myself but that is it.
That is the physical side of things.
Photo taking techniques
This is where cameras for me are a world above and beyond phones.
When I am photographing a building being built, I use very specific camera settings and techniques. I focus on a specific point, expose for the dark parts of the structure as well as all the lights and darks in the background. I am normally taking photos of dark things against a bright sky. Ok sometimes the sky is not that bright, I am in England after all!
I get the depth of field that I need, with the subject where I want it within the composition and absolutely tack sharp. The composition is a technical challenge in itself.
It can take a matter of minutes to get the composition correct, using the LCD screen and the camera viewfinder.
This is all pretty precise stuff. I don’t have the same possibilities with my phone. I don’t have the same control over specifics. And all I have is my phone screen, which let’s be honest you can barely see in bright sunlight. Not like a camera viewfinder.
And a whole world of photography stuff
Just using a phone does not exclude you from the world of photography, but I suggest that you are less likely to get into broader, non-phone photography stuff if you just use a phone, as everything is there for you in an immediate, hassle free way. And why would you?
If you can take your phone out of the box and go and take photos then the chances are that this is all you will do.
If you buy a camera and invest time and effort in photography you will have already entered the wonderful world of photography. Well you will have had to if you have only chosen a camera to buy! And that is the good and the bad thing for photography.
See, it depends what you want to do, how far you want to go into photography, how much time and effort you want to invest. How good you want to be.
And I just want you to know what is out there.
Difficult conditions
Not every photo is taken on a nice sunny day with the light in the right place. I take photos in really challenging situations, and with very challenging subjects. I can’t get the photos that I need with my phone.
Everything that I have mentioned so far contributes to helping us photographers take great photos in challenging conditions, locations, and situations.
There are times when you will find that these conditions are well beyond the capabilities of your phone. I do.
The good old, complicated photography stuff
There is a heap of old school photography stuff that I use to take photos.
· Aperture
· Shutter
· ISO
· Exposure
· Back-button focus
· Focus point
· Depth of field
· Exposure compensation
· Auto bracketing
· Camera self-timer
· Wide angle lens
These things all combine to help me to take the photos that I take. And without them my photos would not be the same. See all this complicated photography stuff has evolved over the years, and has been passed down over the years. And I am sharing this stuff with you now in this digital, phone dominated era.
All these things combine to help us to take the best, most creative, technically correct photos that we can.
All this complicated photography stuff is there for a reason, and it is there to help us.
I will say this again – if you are not interested then fine, that is up to you. Phones do take away a lot of the old, complicated stuff, and do a lot of stuff for us, which has to be a good thing right?
Right – I just don’t want complicated stuff?
I know – who wants complicated stuff? I know I don’t. But whilst this stuff sounds complicated it is actually not that bad, and once learnt properly sets you up for life taking better photos than most others.
And a lot of this complicated stuff I set in camera, leaving me to concentrate on what is in the composition.
Complicated stuff doesn’t have to make for complicated photography – quite the reverse. I have applied what I have learned to simplify my photography whilst taking technically excellent photos in complex situations.
And you can do that too.
But it does take time. And effort, and application. I have put in the time, and now have the simplest, most refined, efficient workflows for taking and processing photos.
If I could only take photos using my phone would I?
Would I switch to a phone? If it were technically possible? Would I ditch all my gear?
Having said yes before, I am backtracking on that. See having a camera, lenses, all that good stuff, it is just different from just taking photos with a phone.
And from a sheer taking photos point of view I would stick with my camera, I would not just go over to my phone.
Right that is that sorted once and for all.
Having your photos organised and backed up
I don’t know about you, but the photos on my phone are in a single album called “Recents.” Over 15,000 of them. I have never sorted them, if I need a photo I just scroll through them. I have never got round to organising them in any way, so there are many, many photos on my phone that I have never done anything with.
On my PC my photos are filed in folders, in a file structure that means that I can find any photo pretty much instantly.
And they are all properly backed up, so if my PC fell over I would be just fine.
Editing on a PC
Editing photos on a phone or indeed an iPad is not the same as editing photos using a computer and a monitor.
There is an obvious difference – using a PC there is the remotest of chances that you are sat correctly, rather than sat on the sofa stooped over a small device. I fear for the generation who do not know life beyond phones, who think it is normal to do stuff like phone editing stooped over a tiny device.
And you can see so much more on a proper monitor – I have a 32” monitor which is formidable for editing photos, I really couldn’t be without it.
Editing photos on my iPad always feels to me like a half-hearted effort, it is not real editing to me. I cannot create the photos that I need to with my phone, or with my iPad. But I use my iPad to leisurely scroll through the photos and select ones to edit, but that is it.
If phones were as good as cameras what would be the point of cameras?
Think about it – if phones were as good as cameras then cameras would be no more. If there were no demand for cameras, no need for them, why would we have cameras?
And apply that thinking to other stuff in photography, like massive camera lenses.
I have never owned a 500mm lens – I don’t need one. But there are many photographers who do. These lenses can cost £5-£10k – yes a broad range but you get the point. You can buy very expensive lenses, and people do because they need them.
See there are still things beyond phones, and sticking with just a phone does restrict you.
Don’t care?
Fine. Not a problem. If you do not care about any of this stuff and just want to take photos with your phone then absolutely fine – I genuinely do not have a problem with this.
If this means that you are going out and take photos and enjoy photography that is good enough for me.
But at least you now know some of the things that you are missing out on.
Right – talky bit over - what if I only use a phone?
I think that I have covered this one. So let’s move on. No there is one thing. If you are used to using a phone, if you were to go to using a camera you would lose that immediacy. This might be a shock to you, having the inconvenience of having to import the photos onto a computer before you can even view them.
Don’t worry it’s fine – not every photo has to be instantly shareable! I still do this and it is still fine.
But moving from a phone to a camera is different – you do have to work in a different way.
And you will need more time of course. But that time gives so much.
Some thoughts from the last episode, “Do I Really Need A Camera In 2022? Or Will My Phone Do Instead?”
Yes I do.
I said so in 2020, and I am saying the same right here in 2022, or whenever you listen to this episode of my small but perfectly formed podcast.
As to you? Well it depends of course, but mainly on what your intentions are with your photography.
If you are happy taking photos with your phone then no, you do not need a camera. But, if you want to explore the world of photography, then you might well need a camera.
And if you want to fully embrace photography, go all in, then yes you do need a camera. And if you want to make a living from photography then you will need a camera.
And if you just don’t want a camera that is fine too.
What do I do?
I take photos with my camera so I am not missing out. I take photos with my phone as well, and see the difference on a daily basis.
I do not believe that you can fully embrace photography without having a camera – there I have said it. I know some people will disagree, and that is fine. But my view is based on over 40 years of practising photography, and probably 15 years of phone photography at the same time. So I can see both sides of this ok?
And this is from a stance of wanting everyone to get the most that they can out of photography, whatever that may be. That is all I am interested in here.
I am not anti-phone photography, I am not saying that you have to have a camera – I just want you to be able to decide one way or the other, fully informed.
I am pro photography using whatever anyone wants to do. I am also pro giving people information that will help them get what they want out of photography.
Next episode
AI in photography. What was I thinking? I have said that I am going to do this and I am not going to back down now just because I have some work to do on this one so no, in Photography Explained Podcast Episode 143 - How Is Artificial Intelligence Used In Photography? Will AI Ever Replace Me? I hope not.
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This episode was brought to you by, erm, a good old cheese and pickle sandwich and home crisps, washed down with a Diet Pepsi, all consumed before sitting down in my home-made, acoustically cushioned recording emporium.
I’ve been Rick McEvoy, thanks again very much for listening to my small but perfectly formed podcast (it says here), and for giving me between 20 and 30 (ish) minutes of your valuable time. There you go, I have stopped saying 10ish minutes finally.
Take care, stay safe
Cheers from me Rick